Monday, March 30, 2009

I'm going to try and spend as much as I can today catching up even more on the "Design Your Life" class. I felt like I made good progress at the end of last week, once I got started, so I really don't want to let go of the motivation and excitement about the class. Therefore I'm off to get some scrapping done. Wanna join me? :)

Leaving you with a little cute looking "Happy Birthday" card which I made last week:

Sunday, March 29, 2009

When I first saw this layout (well Cathy's version of it) in the handout for "week 10" I felt it was a really nice layout but seemed like a lot of hard work measuring and getting everything right. So it put me off a little...

...but I tried to fool myself by breaking it down into little steps. "Just convert the photos to B&W, size them and print them"...and then it was "just measure and cut the little strips" etc etc. It really worked and I totally enjoyed making this double layout. And I even went with Cathy's example of a title that jumped the gutter - yay :)

The layout features my sister and her daughter. And as usual I have managed to not get a 100% straight photo - so apologies for that. It is totally straight in reality :)

Saturday, March 28, 2009

I'm making more progress on catching up with the old Cathy Zielske class. Yay! :) And I gave myself a kick and got the camera out to finally take a photo of the first layout, that I made on Thursday, from "week 10"...

(warning: bad photo - sorry!)

This photo does not do the layout justice at all. Nothing looks straight and no details can be seen. Like the title is not plain white but instead super glittery/shimmery Thickers chipboard letters. And the photo is just bad in general. The light was really bad but the last thing I wanted to do was to use the flash and get huge reflections in the photos. So I'm afraid it's a very poor and grainy photo take on a very dark and rainy day.

Friday, March 27, 2009

I'm so glad that I decided to try and make the time for the "Design Your Life" class once again. Right now it feels like totally the right decision. Even if I'm wondering how I will get the time LOL! And it's kinda comforting to know that I'm not the only one out there who has not finished the class yet. So thanks for the comments that were left for me :)

I managed to establish for sure that it was indeed 3 of the 12 weeks that I'd not done. Week 10-12. I got the slide show (a whole 48 minutes of Cathy Zielske inspiration!) watched and even a layout done later in the afternoon. Week 10 consists of 2 single layouts and 1 double.

I have been a bit lazy and not taken a photo of the layout yet, but as I was going through my saved files for my class I found a few layouts from the class which I'd never uploaded to my blog and this is one of them. General summer photos from Sweden of my family. The layout is very simple in style...almost "too simple" for me and I really didn't like what I'd made at first. Adding the dotted stamped borders at the top and bottom helped a bit though.

Thursday, March 26, 2009

In September (or was it August?) last year I signed up to Cathy Zielske's "Design Your Life" BPS class on the first day it went live to register. Already then I was aware of that I would not be able to do the last 3 weeks "on time" due to having no access to my stash. Then it was the Christmas journal to catch up on in January/February etc etc.

Today I'm going back to the class...

I still have like a million things on my "to do" list so I'm not sure how far I get or when I will get those last 3 weeks finished but I'm going to try my best as the class is far too good not to finish.

I requested a 7 day access pass to the class from BPS yesterday and it had been activated when I checked my mail this morning. So now I'm off to re-watch the slide show for "week 10" and hopefully get started on a layout this afternoon. Please wish me luck in getting some of this done during my 7 day access window. Who knows, maybe you are actually doing the same too? Please do leave me a comment if you too took the class but still have a bit to do :) It would encourage me knowing I'm not the only one.

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

For those of you following (or indeed, are new :)) my on-line classes, the March class has now gone live.

I designed this class as a way of using up lots of photos. Maybe photos with no real connection to a certain occasion. Maybe leftover photos of the same person from other layouts ...or similar ...you get the idea. To punch them into squares and use them together is a really great way of getting those photos into your albums :)

As usual the class is FREE, so please head over to ATDML and take a look if you have a little time to spare. Thank you :)

As always, I picked some gorgeous stash from Mel & Jill at A Trip Down Memory Lane. I loved working with these cute owl & bird papers and the Zoo stamp set from Maya Road is just so perfect for baby photos :)

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

First of all, thanks so much for all the replies to the melon question. Some great tips there, I really appreciate it :) We have a Cantaloupe in the fridge at the moment so I will try the tricks out on that one. :)

This morning I have been making cards. As part of my work for the Sweet Shoppe Creative Team. This cute border kit caught my eye a few days back and since Fee Jardine was one of my "assigned designers" for this month, it was perfect :)

The card idea came to me straight away when I saw how Fee had decided to display the borders in her kit preview picture. It's a technically pretty easy card to make but it does take some time with some slightly fiddly measuring and working everything out to the right size plus some detailed cutting etc.

[Supplies: Shorties - Fee Jardine (SSD)]

The paper strips are attached to the card using foam pads to make them 3D and the "hi" is some foam Thickers alphabet stickers.

On a much, much sadder note... My aunt's burial is taking place today... :(

Saturday, March 21, 2009

Yesterday was Friday (yes I think we all knew that...LOL!) and the new release day at the Lilypad. As usual there were some great new releases this week. A template pack had already caught my eye and when I saw some other kits I decided to have a little play...

Friday, March 20, 2009

I couldn't resist working with these super cute papers from Prima, that I got earlier in the month, any longer:

It was so nice just to play around with them and doing a layout "just because" rather than using a specific kit for something DT related or similar. I must take the time to do this more often :)

The layout features a photo I took of my sister and her baby daughter in December in Sweden and the Prima collection fit this perfectly :)

To change the subject completely. Fruit. To be precise - melons. Anyone know any tricks for telling a when a melon is ripe please? (Apart from the obvious - cut and taste LOL!) We've bought some recently and they have been very hit and miss. A honeydew from one shop - quite green, hard and no taste when I cut it open. A honeydew from the same shop next week and perfect, pale yellow and tasty. If you know any trick to know if/when a melon is ripe please, please share :) I'm off to try and search on the net...

Thursday, March 19, 2009

Not really in the mood for blogging...but hey... Everything I think of to write just seems...trivial...

Thanks for all the nice comments that you have left - I really appreciate it. {{{hugs}}}

Right, albums...my Christmas journal. If you have followed my blog since December you will have seen all the pages from the 1st to the 31st of December. And here is the finished album:

As the cover is fabric (Love Elsie fabric paper...from her Christmas collection I believe) I wanted to keep it very simple and just decided to add the title in some very glittery Thickers.

This photo really does not do the book justice at all I think. It's really fun and interactive with all the different sized pages etc (you know one of those things you just can't help picking up and looking through) but the photo kinda just makes it look at messy I think... Maybe I'm just over critical at the moment.

Back cover. Again very simple (and not straight in the photo LOL!) Rhonna Farrer Christmas paper from...2007 I believe and one of many Catslife Press stamps which I love :)

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Monday, March 16, 2009

Thanks for the sweet comments you have left about still enjoying seeing the pages from my Christmas journal :) Guess what, we have come to the very last few pages now. As I said from the start, I was kinda following Shimelle's Christmas class and kinda not. Kinda Ali Edwards' concept and kinda not. Somewhere in the middle - my own way. The previous years I have followed Shimelle's format and continued to the 6th of January. However I don't really see the need for these last few pages for me. Also I did not want to do what Ali Edwards did and finish on Christmas Day. So I did something in between which suited me better.

I wanted some New Year's Eve photos in my journal so I decided to go from the 1st to the 31st of December. Also you kinda get the "satisfaction" of a "finished chapter/project" then, as it's a complete month, every day from the beginning of the month until the end of the year. :) I really liked this concept once I had spent a lot of time thinking about which day to finish my journal on (it was not an easy decision LOL!) and now I feel like I really picked the right day for me and can see myself sticking to this next year too.

Anyway, onto the last few pages...

The blue page with the blue circles (bottom left) is the back side of this page. As I said yesterday, I like to end my journal with some "year in review" pictures, so this is just a continuation of what was on the previous page.

The 31st features a little journaling and a photo of the set table (see the photo ABOVE this one) and the back side is a simply a photo of some pretty fireworks.

Just the covers for me to take photos of and blog about now - but that will have to be another day. :) I have really enjoyed making this journal and I really love working with different sized pages. "Anything goes" just make projects much more fun to make (and interactive to look at in the end).

Sunday, March 15, 2009

I hope you're not getting tired of seeing my Christmas journal progress? I know some might think it's strange scrapping Christmas when it's not Christmas. But let's face it, how many people scrap Christmas when it IS Christmas? You kinda need to take the photos first :) So I'm one of those people who are happy to scrap Christmas pages whenever - even in the middle of the summer :)

The left side is the "back side" of the page for the 29th of December and just a photo taken out on a very cold walk. The 30th, which is the small red page with white dots on the bottom right, is like a "year in review page". I went through photos of the past year and picked some from each month and made a photo collage. When I post from my journal next time you'll see the back side of day 30 which is more of the same collaged photos. Nice to have to look back on :)

Saturday, March 14, 2009

As I mentioned earlier in the week, I was working with some new releases at the Lilypad. Give me anything super cute and I'm sold. Throw in some cute birds or owls and well...I just have to have it. Why is that? Why can't I resist super cute creatures...? :)

Cute? Check! Birds? Check! Impossible to resist. Look at that great bird paper forth from the top left. And those bunnies...awww! I actually started scrapping this layout without having any idea what it would be about or what photos to use. It was only when I added the little bunny lying under the tree that I thought it would be a great Easter layout and went hunting on my hard drive for some Easter photos.

At first I added my photos in colour. But the layout quickly became too busy looking and I decided to go for black & white instead. I'm still not 100% sure about this layout...but I guess that happens sometimes.

Friday, March 13, 2009

This is one of the layouts that I was working on yesterday. I mainly used the following kit by Jenna Desai:

...with a few bits and pieces thrown in from other kits. I think this is so sweet (!) and fit the photos of my niece perfectly. The title of the kit and the photos made picking the title for my layout very simple: sweet! :)

Suffering from a migraine today so I need to get away from this monitor asap.

Thursday, March 12, 2009

That doesn't happen very often...maybe a few times a year for me. A photoless post. I usually try to include at least one image in my posts but today I'm just scrapped out and just can't find the enthusiasm to find/take a photo, resize it and upload it. So apologies for having a lazy day LOL!

Not that I'm really having a lazy day at all. It's been very busy scrapping wise. I downloaded a few new Lilypad kits early this morning (available to buy tomorrow), tagged them all in ACDSee and then scrapped two layouts. I feel a bit worn out now because I have a tendency to forget to move when I'm on the computer which results in very achy shoulders. Aaah. Anyway the layouts are uploaded in the relevant secret thread at Lilypad and it's just a case of waiting until tomorrow now before I can put them in any "public" place.

I'm going to play with some ideas for my "Here, There and Everywhere" album this afternoon. I have the photos and the general idea of the journaling I want ono my next few pages...I just need to come up with an idea of the design/how to fit it all where I want now. So time to do some thinking...

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Getting very, very close to finishing my Christmas album now. These are the pages from the 28th and 29th of January. Actually only photos LOL! The previous page of the 28th had a lot of writing on it so this one only has a single photo.

All the journaling on the back of the photo is featured in the photo of this post and is all about the very short notice wedding that we went to in Sweden between Christmas and New Year.

The photo for the 29th is taken on a very frosty and cold walk out on a pier.

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Before I talk about my "Here, There and Everywhere" album I just wanted to answer a question that I got from "pinky" - you wondered about the punches and where I got them from. I ordered them on-line from the US (unfortunately the place I bought them from has sold out completely)...but I would guess you can probably buy them somewhere in the UK too. Good luck :)

And "liberty cottage" - thanks for your comment. I'm very pleased that my albums have inspired you to be "brave", to step away from your "12x12 comfort zone" and order a chipboard album. I'm sure you will have lots of fun with it :) My best tip: don't be afraid - just play :) Remove pages if you feel like it, add others (different sizes, different materials) - the more you play, the more fun and interactive your finished project will be :)

As I said earlier I decided to go with the red/pink album (rather than the green/blue which would have been a more obvious choice for me)...but I couldn't resist adding just that touch of green to it :)

The cover for these Narratives/Karen Russell albums come with an aperture covered with a transparency on front cover (as you can see in the picture above). So I decided to make use out of this and to create my "front cover image" on the first page inside the album.

(sorry this photo is not 100% straight)

The main image is part of the class materials that Shimelle provided. But I also wanted to add something more to it to actually fill up the space that shows through the window on the front cover and my Ali Edwards stamps came in perfect for this :)

Sunday, March 08, 2009

The left side is half a page with a very "frozen" photo. Went on a walk near the sea on the 27th and got some great "cold" photos :)

The 28th again is half a page (though the top half - as we're looking at it). Lots of journaling about a slightly crazy day. We got invited to a very short notice wedding (like about a week LOL!) in Sweden. It goes through the day of getting up very early to drive 3 hours, head for the church, the reception afterwards and then drive 3 hours back home getting back about midnight. A long and crazy but very good day :)

Saturday, March 07, 2009

I finally got the time to bring out the camera and take some photos of the stash parcel that arrived on...Wednesday, I think it was. I got my punches that I'd been waiting so much for. Martha Stewart has brought out some really great border punches and I couldn't resist a few of them. There are loads but I chose to buy 4. Oh and some paper too :)

These are my 4 new punches (plus a pack of Prima flowers which were a little bigger than I thought when I saw them on-line). After playing with them on some scrap paper and think my two faves are the two on the left side in the photo. Though I'm really pleased I got all 4 and can see myself using these a lot.

Some new Sassafras. Always love Sassafras. Though if I should be honest maybe these collections are not quite as much "me" as some previous ones. So therefore I was also more picky than usual when I chose what to buy and "only" got 2-3 sheets from each collection (while in the past I might have got a few more).

Prima. Now for some reason Prima papers have never really done it for me in the past. In fact I'm even trying to think of if I have ANY Prima paper in my stash and I'm not sure you know... But this collection, "Mommy and Me", is just super, super cute! Totally impossible to resist :)

Some American Crafts. Give me smiley happy colours (who would have thought I was a totally "muted colours" girl only a few years back?!?!) any time. Add in some owls and I'm sold :)

Heidi Grace. What more is there to say? Heidi Grace is one of my all time favourite paper manufacturers (together with October Afternoon, Sassafras, Scenic Route and one or two more).

Friday, March 06, 2009

...is released today. BYOC stands for "Build Your Own Collab" and it's an occasion that happens once a month at the Lilypad. The first Firday of the month. All the designers come together, plus one guest designer, pick a colour combination and create the most amazing co-ordinating kits. You can see the latest collab here.

As I mentioned yesterday, I was busy working with some of these kits yesterday afternoon. I was going to do some hybrid work but my printer is out of ink. I ordered it early and even though it showed as "in stock", I got a mail from the company telling me they had no stock and new stock would take at least 10 days to reach them. Why advertise as "in stock" then? Same for both items. And last time I ordered (3 lots of photo paper) they all showed as "in stock"...then I got an e-mail saying all my order was out of stock. Grrr! Next time I will pick another company. Anyone know of a good (=good price!) supplier of GENUINE Canon ink please? Leave me a comment please :)

So anyway, no hybrid for me this time, instead I went digi and came up with these two layouts...

Thursday, March 05, 2009

Guess what? Literally the same minute I pressed "publish" on my post yesterday, my second parcel turned up with the punches I was waiting for :) Might see if I can remember to take a photo of that for tomorrow...

Today I have been working on some layouts for Lilypad. Well I say "some"... I have done one so far and I hope to get the chance to get another one done by the end of the day if I can. It's for the new BYOC which is released tomorrow.

And before I go for today, here's the next set of pages in my Christmas journal. I decided to do it up to and including the 31st of Dec, so only a few pages left to go now:

Wednesday, March 04, 2009

I mentioned on Monday that I got some new stash last week. I still haven't got the second part which contains some punches that I'm really excited about. But it's still morning here as I type this so I guess there's plenty of chance for them arriving even today.

Anyway, it was ages since I look some stash photos so here we go... I have numbered a few things which I wanted to comment on. I hope the numbers and arrows will show up okay once I have minimized the photos to a good blog size.

1. If you haven't checked out the new kraft collection by Fancy Pants you must. It's so cute. I just can't get enough of kraft as it really works with anything and everything.

2. So pleased to add these Ali Edwards/Technique Tuesday stamps to my collection. I love her previous stamp sets. :)

3. The Imaginisce "Twitterpated" creatures just make me smile. :)

4. A little hard to see, but these two black little packages at the bottom of the photo are Maya Road sheers - birds and owls.

5. Some more Maya Road. Very, very cute animal rub-ons. So cute I had to get two packages!

6. You know when you buy something on-line and you have never seen it in real life? And sometimes it comes as a bit of a surprise when it arrives? Well these green Thickers were just that. They are HUGE!! And I had no idea LOL! I wouldn't have bought them if I'd known. Oh well... It reminds me of when I bought some mini albums from the US last year. They postage seemed very high but I didn't think anything more of it. They were called "board" and I just assumed they were "chipboard"...when the parcel arrived the postage suddenly made sense as the books were "board" as in "wood"!!!! LOL!

7. ...and talking about Thickers. The ones marked with no 7 I totally *love* and I can see these becoming very, very useful. Just the type of size etc that I always reach for :)

Monday, March 02, 2009

We're onto the travel memories (or the "places I have been") part of "Here, There and Everywhere". ie the "there" part. I'm spending today making a list of places...not sure if they will all be included in the album or not yet, but at least if I have a list with some ideas that's a start. Then I hope to start gathering some photos that belong to these trips...though that might have to be a job for tomorrow.

Been playing with some yummy Sassafras stash here. Layout of with photos of my mum when she and dad were on Madeira. Though the layout is titled "Madagascar" - there's a story to it LOL!

I've got some new stash last week which I might take some photos of later. It was coming in two parcels and I'm hoping that the other one might be here any day soon now too :)

Sunday, March 01, 2009

This is "part 2" of the hybrid projects that I had to show you this weekend. Again I have used one of the fantastic templates available at Sweet Shoppe Designs. This time it's the "milk carton" template that I have used.

At first I was going to glue the top shut but then I decided to use my Crop-A-Dile to make some holes in the top and add brads instead (ribbons would be really pretty to use too). That way you can open and re-use the box...maybe to keep little holiday memories or save some holiday funds in...

Once you had done all the designing and printed out your box it was surprisingly fast to put together. There's something so satisfying to start with a flat piece of paper, do a little scoring, cutting & gluing and before you know it you end up with a cute little box :)